


The Leading Man

by TheBlackMorals



Category: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Sky Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:07:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21592798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlackMorals/pseuds/TheBlackMorals
Summary: A comprehensive collection of all available information about Balthier. His life, past and present, written as a cohesive story.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	The Leading Man

**Author's Note:**

> All the information in this story is collected from the game, the FF Ultimania, online, youtube, and interviews with the directors etc. It's all freely available. Some details might be my interpretation, but I've tried to keep it as factual as possible.

Born in 684 of the old Valendian timeline, Ffamran Mied Bunansa was the youngest son of Cidolfus Demen Bunansa. House Bunansa was a reputable and esteemed family within Archadian society due to Cidolfus’ employment as a head scientist by the Empire. This afforded them a life of relative luxury within the powerful walls of Archades, and Ffamran was given the best tutoring available, which caused him to excel in his early years, alongside his two brothers. 

Ffamran had always been close with his brothers, but as they all grew older, however, Ffamran was the one who showed the most promise, and noticing this, his father pushed him to achieve what his brothers could not. As a result, Ffamran became ingrained in Archadian society, learning about its many laws and intricacies, and this, coupled with his talent within martial arts, led him to become part of the Archadian military at a very young age. Such was his success, that on his sixteenth birthday, Cidolfus used his connections to promote Ffamran to the prestigious position of Judge. The gesture was bold, full of nepotism, and it showed the iron clad confidence that Cidolfus had in his youngest son. 

Becoming a Judge meant one had to possess a large amount of steel, discipline and maturity, as Judges were the literal extension of the Archadian judicial system. They could, at will, hand down instantaneous punishments and sanctions, all in the name of the Archadian justice system, and it was indeed a great honor for Ffamran to become a Judge. This was overshadowed, however, by the fact that things had become increasingly tense at home, as Cidolfus soon after began acting rather strangely.

Neglecting his family, Cidolfus spent increasingly more and more time at the Draklor Laboratory, consumed by the magicked stone known as Nethicite, and his own inventions. And as Ffamran matured in the years to follow, he came to realize that he had lost the father he had once known and loved to the stone, and it weighed heavily on his heart and shoulders. As he told Princess Ashe at Phon Coast six years later; “He was obsessed with Nethicite. It was all he cared about. He’d babble nonsense, blind to aught but the stone’s power. He’d talk about some ‘Eynah’, or was it ‘Venat’? No matter. Everything he did, he did to get closer to the Nethicite, to understand it." 

As a result, Ffamran slowly came to realize that the life he had was no longer the life he wanted; watching his father’s enslavement to the stone made him crave freedom the most, and he fled Archades and his newly acquired position as Judge soon after. Fled the only life he had ever known, and his family... 

Ffamran fled with much haste, too, as he stole a military prototype fighter jet - which he later named the _Strahl_ \- that the military had been working on in secret. Such was his actions, that Ffamran knew he would instantly become a wanted man, and so he decided to come up with an alias - Balthier - as he took up the life of a sky pirate. 

In the years that followed, Balthier saw many great scores, and to increase his game even further, he decided to partner with a Viera named Fran. She was something of a kindred spirit, as she too, had left everything she knew behind - including her family - in order to live a life of freedom. 

Such was their collective success in the years that followed, that they ended up achieving much notoriety within the realm of sky pirating. As a result, sizeable bounties were placed on their heads, and many bounty hunters began taking notice. This, however, only spurred Balthier on even further, giving inspiration to the ever evolving narrative in Balthier’s mind that he was the hero of his own adventure - “the leading man”, as he called himself. 

Six years into his new life, at the age of twenty-two, Balthier attempted the theft of ‘the Goddess’ Magicite’ from the Royal Palace of Rabanastre. This, unbeknownst to him, was a rather ironic score, as the Goddess’ Magicite - also known as the 'Dusk Shard’ - turned out to be deifacted Nethicite; it was, in fact, not too dissimilar from the stone which had consumed his father. 

During the theft, Balthier and Fran hoped to use Consul Vayne Carudas Solidor’s celebratory banquet as the perfect cover. It would have worked too, except for one small detail - Vaan, a Rabanstrean street urchin, was also attempting to steal the Dusk Shard, and he beat them to the punch. This, coupled with the sudden (and highly suspicious) arrival of the imperial forces, made Balthier have to improvise. Hoping to coax the Dusk Shard from Vaan down the line, Balthier decided to join forces with the churl, while making their escape from the imperial forces. 

Escape they did not, unfortunately, as they were soon captured after attempting to help Princess Ashe (aka "Amalia") escape from the imperial forces, too. They ended up captives of the Empire for their trouble, thrown in the Nalbina Dungeons, left there to rot until the end of their days. Luckily Fran found them a way out, however, due to her keen Viera senses, and they soon made for a hasty getaway. On the way, they came upon another inmate; Captain Basch fon Ronsenburg, though he was more commonly known as _kingslayer_ throughout the land, accused of killing the king of Dalmasca. And the alleged murderer of Vaan’s older brother Reks, too.

Balthier believed in Basch’s innocence, however, and by helping him escape too, Balthier proved that - although he had been ingrained in the life of a sky pirate - his moral compass was still intact. And due to the perilous nature of their situation, there were also numerous chances for Balthier to abandon Vaan during their escape and claim the Dusk Shard as his own, but he chose instead to protect him, even after there was no more need for them to work together. He also accepted Basch into their group, realizing the wider value in their discovery of the Captain; ignoring Vaan’s protests on the matter, Balthier reckoned that they could use Basch’s capabilities with a sword while making their escape. And as they successfully escaped the dungeons, Balthier’s decision to trust Basch was vindicated, and even Vaan came to believe in Basch’s innocence.

Free at last, Balthier and Fran were so irked by the whole experience that they came to believe that the Dusk Shard had to be cursed. Fran told Vaan; “We feel regret. We sought the stone and found ourselves only worry.” As a result, once Basch and Vaan were returned to Rabanastre, Balthier and Fran chose go their separate ways. Fate, however, was yet again not on their side. As luck would have it, Penelo - a friend of Vaan’s - got kidnapped by a group of bounty hunters who believed her to be the perfect bait for capturing Balthier, due to Vaan’s perceived involvement with the notorious sky pirate. Alas, Balthier then found himself reluctantly agreeing to join Vaan in coming to her rescue. Reluctantly because he was, after all, still a wanted sky pirate, and thus his main focus had to be self preservation; he knew he would be walking right into a trap, wanted by not only the bounty hunters, but the imperial forces too, which just made it all the more dangerous for him. Still he went, as it was the right thing to do.

Taking the Strahl, Balthier, Fran and Vaan were soon on their way to the sky city of Bhujerba (where Penelo was being held captive), and Basch decided to join them too, having his own motives for wanting to go to the city. Once there, they had another chance meeting, this time with a young boy calling himself "LaMont" - who was later revealed to be none other than Larsa Ferrinas Solidor, the younger brother of Consul Vayne Solidor, and son of the Emperor. Balthier agreed to let Larsa accompany them on their rescue mission, intrigued and curious about what he could learn about the happenings within the Empire from the curiously well informed boy. Especially about his father and the ongoings of Draklor Laboratory. Before Balthier could get any real information from him, however, the bounty hunters showed up and a fight ensued, during which Larsa managed to slip away and return to the safety of the Imperial Guard. 

Once the bounty hunters were defeated, Balthier had no clear plan on how to proceed from there, and so he decided to help facilitate a meeting between Basch and Marquis Halim Ondore, the leader of Bhujerba, who had secretly been supporting the Dalmascan Resistance in their struggle against the Empire. 

For the second time, Balthier’s attempt to provide aid to others saw him in chains, this time as a prisoner of Judge Magister Ghis of the Empire. Naturally unsettled by the whole situation, Balthier was only able to see the humor in it _after_ escaping their capture, as part of a wider plan enacted by Basch and Marquis Ondore to save Princess Ashe from Judge Magister Ghis. As he jokingly asked the Marquis after their escape; “Incidentally, what is the going rate for rescuing princesses these days? Food would be a start - the good stuff, mind you.” 

Try as he might, however, Balthier found himself unable to excuse himself from the developing situation, as bigger and bigger carrots were dangled in front of him, attracting his gluttonous side; sizable rewards for helping Princess Ashe on her further journey. Furthermore, deep down, though he had abandoned parts of his moral compass when he fled Archades, Balthier also chose to help Vaan, Basch and the Princess for more virtuous reasons too. There was no reason for their relationships to continue, after all, and yet Balthier ended up helping out anyway, once again proving that, though he was a sky pirate by trade, he still had a conscience and a moral compass for doing the right thing. 

As a result, when Princess Ashe attempted to steal the Strahl to go claim the Dawn Shard (another piece of deifacted Nethicite), to prove her birthright as the ruler of Dalmasca, Balthier was given the perfect opportunity to help her, while still keeping his sky pirate integrity. He harbored deep resentment towards the Empire, after all, and based on recent events, he was also curious as to what his father had been up to the past six years. Assisting Princess Ashe was the right thing to do, but it would also aid his own personal desires. Yet he couldn’t just offer his assistance (on sky pirate principle), so there had to be something else in it for him too, a treasure, a score; so when the Princess floated the possibility of looting (her ancestor) King Raithwall’s tomb as payment for his assistance, Balthier saw the perfect opportunity to lend a hand without seeming too invested. While the others hadn’t caught on yet, Basch, however, seemed to realize this; that Balthier wasn’t a simple sky pirate, even if he tried his best to deflect any claims of altruism. 

This theme continued, as Princess Ashe continued to expect Balthier’s further assistance as she tried to deepen her understanding of the Dawn Shard by going to meet with the Garifs. In similar fashion, Balthier would only assist her if rewarded with something valuable - this time the Princess’ wedding ring - as compensation. In truth, however, witnessing Princess Ashe’s aggression towards the Empire and the immense power of the deifacted Nethicite, Balthier had become concerned, as he saw parallels between Princess Ashe and his power-hungry father. 

Furthermore, Balthier also realized that, for more selfish reasons, he could use the Princess to finally get some closure. He had been running from his past for the last six years, masquerading as a sky pirate, yet no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t escape it. He kept ending up right back where he started, and the irony that he had been chasing the very stone that he had tried to escape, was not lost on him. He decided that it was best that he stayed close to Princess Ashe and the stone, so he could keep an eye on the unfolding events and influence the path she would take. This was also why he chose her wedding ring as collateral for his further assistance - because he knew it had significant personal value to her, and could be used to influence her. He told her; “I’ll give it back to you. As soon as I find something more valuable.” 

Furthermore, the decision to continue on the journey with Princess Ashe turned out to be prudent for Balthier in several different ways. 

During their quest to Bur-Omisace, where they hoped the Gran Kiltias Anastasis would anoint Princess Ashe as queen and ruler of Dalmasca, they came upon several researchers from the Draklor Laboratory who had been slain. For Balthier, this only furthered the concern he felt regarding his father’s experimentations with the Nethicite. How far had Cidolfus gone in pursuit of the power that had pushed Balthier away in the first place? 

And once again, they arrived too late. Judge Bergan - another Judge Magister of the Empire - had slain the Gran Kiltias just before their arrival, leading Balthier to believe that the time was right for influencing the events in a more active way. Upon his suggestion, the group decided to visit the Draklor Laboratory in Archades, in spite of their notoriety within Archadia. Balthier wanted to confront his father once and for all, and destroy the deifacted Nethicite that Cidolfus had been collecting. Here, Princess Ashe played right into Balthier’s hand again; due to her focus on revenge and power, she had been oblivious to Balthier’s subtle guidance, and when the time was right, he chose to finally share the secrets of his past with her, in order to share his concern about the path she was choosing. He told her; “The choice is yours to make, but don’t give your heart to a stone. You’re too strong for that, princess.” 

As the group then ventured into Archades, Balthier was given the opportunity, as hoped, to confront his past, and his father. This taught him the truth of his father’s madness - or, rather, he learned that his father _wasn’t_ actually mad, but had instead been working together with a member of the Occuria named Venat. This was especially tough for Balthier to accept, as he had always believed that the stone had driven Cidolfus mad - and that this was the very reason why he had lost his father in the first place. But the truth was so much more hurtful - Cidolfus simply cared more about science than he did his own family. And as Cidolfus managed to flee their fight, Balthier once again urged the group to follow him, this time to the ancient city of Giruvegan. Balthier realized only too late that this was a trap; his father had planned for them to follow him there, to insure Princess Ashe’s meeting with the Occuria. Balthier had been played. 

Meeting the Occuria, the Princess was given her mission, which was exactly what Cidolfus had wanted, and this threw Balthier for a spin; for a short period of time, he even came around to the idea of acquiring more deifacted Nethicite to use in their fight against the Empire (and his father). Furthermore, Balthier also believed the time was right for him to finally make his own stand - he had been running away for six years, but now he was done running. This, however, came with a cost; fearing that this decision to act would have a deadly outcome for him, he told Vaan that the Strahl was his, should anything happen to him. Or, in his own words; “If something untoward should happen to me, you’re taking the Strahl. I am the leading man. Might need to do something heroic.”

With this brazen mindset, Balthier wanted to confront his father one last time, as he wanted to learn the truth about his grand plan. Had his father really planned all of it, or had he just been Venat’s puppet all of these years? Painfully, Balthier came to realize that his father had indeed been no puppet, but had worked _with_ Venat, and he had simply chosen to leave his family behind, thinking they would never understand what he was trying to achieve. And, having hoped to share his vision and knowledge with his youngest son, Cidolfus had never forgiven Balthier for running away, and he left him with some cutting final words as he laid dying; “Spend your pity elsewhere. If you are so set on running, hadn’t you best be off? Fool of a pirate.” 

Even so, there was little time for Balthier to wallow in the death of his father, as the fate of Ivalice was still at stake. He was resolved to undo the plan his father had been working on (and died for), which meant that the group had to infiltrate the sky fortress known as Bahamut, and confront the Consul-turned-Emperor Vayne Solidor, before his military could attack Dalmasca and cause irreparable damage to all of Ivalice. 

Interestingly though, whereas Balthier had inserted himself into the leading role of their adventure, he actually ended up playing a supportive role once they had finally infiltrated Bahamut and defeated Vayne Solidor. Realizing that the sky fortress was going to fall on Dalmasca, and destroy Rabanastre in the process, Balthier and Fran secretly decided to stay behind while Basch, Princess Ashe, Penelo, Larsa and Vaan flew to safety in the Strahl. They did so in order to repair Bahamut’s engine, to ensure that it was diverted away from Rabanastre, even knowing that it would most likely cost them their lives (as Balthier had predicted earlier). Due to their effort, Rabanastre was indeed saved, but many feared Balthier and Fran dead as a consequence. They didn’t die, however, and after a while, Balthier reclaimed the Strahl from Vaan and Penelo. Furthermore, he also returned Princess Ashe’s wedding ring, and even invited Vaan and Penelo to join him on a new adventure to find 'The Cache of Glabados’. 

During their downtime, Balthier and Fran had collected information about a forgotten temple - The Cache of Glabados - which was said to hold two invaluable treasures. These treasures turned out to be two crystals (known as 'auracite'), and Balthier used the discovery of these as a way of cementing Vaan as his official apprentice. It also set in motion a wider chain of events. In the past, Reddas, another sky pirate (and former Judge Magister), had jested that Vaan was Balthier’s apprentice, which Baltier had flat out denied, though he had still felt comfortable enough to leave his beloved Strahl in Vaan’s hands while him and Fran had laid low after Bahamut. Now was the time for Vaan to officially join the sky pirate profession - “A little something to welcome you to our humble profession.”, as Balthier told him. 

This, however, wasn’t completely true. In reality, Balthier also needed Vaan’s help as he wanted to undo another consequence of his late father’s maniacal master plan. He chose the route of manipulation rather than sincerity, knowing that Vaan would be hungry to learn more on his own, but also wouldn’t be able to comprehend the full picture and gravity of his discovery. Balthier chose to give him a taste of the treasure, before sending him off on his own journey, to find his own path.

Or so he said.

Having learned that the floating islands of Lemurés were real and had reappeared due to his father’s hand in releasing the Mist from the Sun-Cryst, Balthier decided to go there. It was there he met the Judge of Wings for the first time; a powerful new foe who was filled with vengeance and the desire for the total destruction of Ivalice. Unbeknownst to the Judge of Wings, she was being driven by Feolthanos, a warrior who had previously tried to stand up against the Occuria, refusing to be their slave (just as Cidolfus had). As a result, the Occuria had locked Feolthanos in a magical barrier to keep him from challenging them again; a barrier which had been destroyed by Cidolfus’ release of the Mist, giving Feolthanos the opportunity to finally exact revenge on the Occuria (and destroy Ivalice in the process). 

Due to his intelligence, Balthier could take an educated guess as to what the Judge of Wings (under the influence of Feolthanos) was aiming to do, and he tried to stop her. He was, however, rendered unconscious during the fight, but still managed to escape with Fran after reawakening. He also put further plans into motion for Vaan to carry out, yet Vaan was unable to keep up with what Balthier was trying to achieve. As a result, Balthier had to work against Vaan for a short period of time, though they eventually made up and decided to team together to stop Feolthanos, who was trying to control his people with magic, to make them worship him as a god. 

After a long and perilous fight, they were successful in defeating the would-be god. Balthier, however, excused himself and Fran from the following celebrations, saying there were new adventures awaiting them. In truth though, Balthier knew that, after once again saving Ivalice and the future, there would be other challenges left throughout Ivalice that would need the guiding hand of the story’s leading man.


End file.
